Jason Howell: Why You Should Vote For Me

Last month we asked the four candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, Eighth District of Virginia, to write a sub-750 word essay describing why the county’s residents should vote for them on Election Day (Nov. 6).

Here is the unedited response from Jason Howell (I):

We can do better.

Our politics is broken, because our politicians don’t represent citizens. That is the problem. I am running for Congress as an Independent to represent people rather than parties, ideas rather than ideology. I have lived in this area for 25 years and have spent the last 20 years, beginning in college, working in mostly accounting and finance. I’m running to do something that neither party seems to want to do: take responsibility for the big problems we face as a country (the economy, the debt, immigration, traffic in our area and certainly taxes). It is after all, we the people. We are those people.

Over the course of this campaign, my wife and I and a small group of about 40 volunteers have been working for you. My full-time career began as a bank teller where I learned as an 18 year old how important social security and interest rates checks were to our senior citizens. My parents were immigrants so to save on student loans I worked my way through Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University earning an accounting degree. In accounting I learned that you can’t fake math and budgets need to balance. Before starting my own firm, my last regular job was as a recruiter at an accounting and finance staffing firm. I was a commission only recruiter for 3 years and my best days were when I got someone a job. This is what we need now. Someone who gets why fiscal policy is important to seniors, knows how important balancing the budget is and has literally found people jobs.

Like his legislative colleagues who share in the all-time low approval rating, Jim Moran has T.R.I.E.D. – Traffic, Regulation, Immigration, Economy and Debt – working on critical issues but unfortunately failed. Passionate partisanship has painted many politicians into a political corner and Mr. Moran, a member of the minority in the U.S. House, is no exception. We can do better.

Traffic, regulation, immigration, the economy and debt are issues I will tackle during my first term.

Traffic

We are number one in traffic. Despite the millions of dollars earmarked and spent, we still hold the dubious distinction of being number one. I will champion telecommuting policy so that Senior Executive Service level employees know that it is a priority. For more about my ideas on telecommuting policy, click here.

Regulation

To slow relationship bank consolidations and the influence of the now “too bigger to fail,” I will work with other legislators to create criteria for smaller banks that allow exemptions from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Small, relationship banks did not create the crisis and have been unequally burdened. For more details regarding my stance financial regulation click here.

Immigration

Jim Moran voted for the last major piece of federal immigration legislation called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Reconciliation Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). IIRIRA removed judge’s discretion to adjudicate crimes worthy of deportation. This is what led to the record 396,906 “removals” of 2011. I support the DREAM Act, the Startup Act 2.0 and changing policy to incent the US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) to succeed. For more of my ideas regarding immigration click here.

Economy

In Congress, I will be a good steward of our responsibility to manage fiscal policy. To stimulate our economy I will leverage my finance background to help lead in three areas: taxes, housing and trade. For details about my plan to work on economy click here.

Debt

With nearly $16 trillion in short term debt and $60 trillion in long term debt obligations, we cannot just cut our way to balancing our budget and repaying our debt. I support taking some actions in the short term to buffer our economy – like continued tax relief in 2013 – that we may not take in the long term to reduce our debt. For long term debt reduction, I will work with the Government Accountability Office’s 2012 report to detail an organized plan for reducing the 81 areas of government program overlap. For the GAO’s 2012 report details click here.

This is your opportunity to vote for someone in Congress rather than just against Jim Moran. You can carve your initials into the wall of history by replacing an incumbent with an Independent. You’ll be glad that you did. Vote for Jason J. Howell (VoteJasonHowell.com). We can do better, we must do better and if you vote for me on November 6, we will do better.